Cord Blood Protein Boosts Memory in Old Mice (Tech Times)

Translation to humans uncertain

Infusion of umbilical-cord blood containing a naturally occurring protein led to improvement in memory and cognitive function in aged mice, as reported by Tech Times.

Elderly mice, equivalent in human age to 70 years old, performed a series of memory and cognitive tasks before and after infusion of cord blood-derived plasma. The animals' test performance improved substantially after the infusion. Test performance also improved in animals that received plasma from young adult humans (median age 22). In contrast, the animals' test performance did not change after receiving plasma from older adults (median age 66).

Researchers traced the cognitive improvement to a specific protein in the plasma: tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP-2). However, timing and mechanism of TIMP-2 production remained unclear, and the researchers, reporting in Nature, cautioned that success in animal studies often does not translate to human studies.